Monday, November 21, 2011

Ferry company goes offshore so it can pay low wages

Under the Agency Worker Regulations, "temporary" workers who have been doing the same job for 12 weeks come Christmas Eve are entitled to the same salary as staff. But, as we've been reporting over recent weeks, tight bosses are finding ways around the regulations.

For ferry operator P&O it involves re-registering two boats - the Pride of Hull and the Pride of York - in the Bahamas to avoid UK employment laws.

What a surprise. As we have long noted, what tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions like the Bahamas ultimately offer is escape for wealthy elites and their representatives from their responsibilities to society: escape from scrutiny, from tax, from criminal laws, from financial regulations, and from others. In this particular case, it is employment laws. The Mirror continues:

"RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "This is a blatant and transparent attempt by P&O to avoid their obligations under the new agency worker regulations and they have publicly admitted that.

"Rather than offering temporary workers equality they are using the flag of convenience to dodge their obligations and that is a scandal."

Indeed it is. The whole offshore system is one gigantic scandal, from start to finish.

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The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an international, non-aligned network of researchers and activists with a shared concern about the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens.
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